Refused and Abhinanda got recognition first and left a huge impression on the world of hardcore but they were not alone. As you can see from the flyers we photographed while at the exhibition, Umeå was bursting into hardcore and i think there must be something on their water. It must be.

To make more sense of all the pictures we have from the exhibition, we decided to bring a short sample of the music those hardcore bands were playing back in those days. And, below, you can see what we think are their best albums. This way, it is a little easier to understand why the Hardcore movement in Umeå got so big and was so important to this city in northern Sweden.

Now it is time to listen to some of the best Hardcore from Umeå

The first band we have to mention is Refused since i am listening to it while i write this. Refused was the biggest hardcore band in Europe during the 90’s, even being indicated to a Swedish Grammy award three times in that decade. If you start listening to all their albums, you are going to see how different they sound from each other and get the musical progression easily. Listen to The Shape Of Punk To Come and you will get why they are so good.

I had never heard of Abhinanda before this exhibition and it was great to discover such a cool band. Together with Refused, they were the leading bands on the Umeå hardcore scene. And, they were the first band to come out on a Desperate Fight Records. This small label was created by Dennis Lyxzén from Refused and Jose Saxlund from Abhinanda to release records by most of the bands in the huge local Straight edge hardcore scene known collectively as Umeå Hardcore. The album below is Senseless and it might be their best one.

I read Doughnuts on lots of flyers at this exhibition but i have never heard of them before. And it came as a big surprise when i learned that they were the first all girl straight edge band. Their music was pretty technical and the vocal style was quite unique. Feel Me Bleed was their second album and it is my favorite one from them.

Final Exit was something like a all star band from the hardcore scene in Umeå. Members from Refused, Abhinanda, Kid Stone played a more old school hardcore influenced hardcore in the way of Sick of It All and Agnostic Front. Umeå is the name of the album below and it is the last one they released before breaking up in 1997.

The (International) Noise Conspiracy is the name of the band that was formed after the end of Refused. Featuring members of Doughnuts, Separation, Saidiwas and, of course, Refused, they played a mix of punk rock and garage rock filled with impassioned left-wing political lyrics. They are one of the last bands to come up during those years but i think they are one of the best. Survival Sickness is the name of the album below.

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About The Author

Felipe Tofani likes designing things and listening to weird music. He is the one responsible for finding cool places to visit every time Fotostrasse goes somewhere and he the one to blame about all the history you read here.

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What is Fotostrasse?

Fotostrasse is a travel blog focused on bringing cool people to different places. It is written by 2 Brazilian friends living in Berlin surrounded by cats. Marcela Faé and Felipe Tofani are the bloggers taking care of almost everything you can see here.